Payoff stand



March 5, 14968 o. G. GARNER 3,371,878

PAYQFF STAND Filed Nov. 16. 1964 2 sheets-sheet 1 mvElNToR Y.OSCAR s.GARNER;

ATTORNEYS.

March 5, 196s Y o. G. GARNI-:R 3,371,878

PAYOFFSTAND Filed Nov. 16. 1964 2 sheets-sheet. 2

rf. f* u 28 I! 2o li "V I 30a h 26 l0 30 gl .L i i l Il-.. o I .-.A J ll Q I 22u, l '4 '0 -46 74 s! g ,24 l -44 |l y .g f l l l i i. i si i i!1 i! l l g i I l i 84 30' 2,0' INVENTOR OSCAR G. GARNER United StatesPatent Oce 3,371,878 Patented Mar; 5, 1968 3,371,878 PAYOFF STAND OscarG. Garner, Westfield, NJ., assignor to General Cable Corporation, NewYork, N.Y., a corporation of New Jersey Filed Nov. 16, 1964, Ser. No.411,431 8 Claims. (Cl. 242-45) This invention relates to apparatus forsupplying strands to a cabling machine, or other apparatus, and moreespecially for supplying wire strands for making stranded electricalconductors.

In the manufacture of telephone cables and similar communications linesit is very desirable that the various conductors whether they be single,paired, or grouped be kept at uniform tension when they are broughttogether to make the cable or next larger size grouping. Uniformtensions are necessary to give the cable the proper electricalcharacteristics. It is also true that the effect of good tension controlduring part of the manufacture is lost if at some other stage ofmanufacture there is poor, or no, tension control. This inventionprovides a system for tension control when feeding single, multiple, orgrouped conductors during the manufacture of cables which givesessentially constant preselected tensions throughout the operationindependent of varying wire speeds and changing drum diameters.

It is an object of the invention to provide improved apparatus,including a constant tension payoff system, for supplying strands to acabling machine, or other apparatus.

Another feature of the invention is to withdraw strands from payoffspools that are at different levels, but with the strands drawn upwardlyfrom the lower spools .and downwardly from the upper spools in contrastwith the conventional practice of taking the strands from the tops ofall of the spools, In this latter case, the wires from the upper spoolsare so high from the floor that the operator cannot easily handle thesewires during the string up or change over, or during .any adjustmentwhich becomes necessary during the operation of a particular payoffstand.

With this invention having the wire drawn downwardly from the upperspools the operator has easier access to all of the adjustments sincethey are in an area between approximately 26 and 54 inches from thefloor, when using payoff spools of conventional diameters.

Another object of the invention is to supply the strands from thedifferent spools with a normalizing or equalizing of the mechanicalworking imparted to the wires coming from the bottom row as compared tothe wires coming from the top row of spools. By subjecting the strandsfrom the different spools to the same amount of bending, and thus toidentical mechanical working, the wires, either bare or insulated, aresupplied with uniform temper of the conductors to the next operation tostranding, to the oscillating plates, or to cabling.

Another object is to provide an improved -rnultispool payoff stand inwhich the spools, guides and tension control means are combined toobtain compact construction without having the spools of the upper rowand their guides and tension control interfere with the correspondingstructure of the lower row of the spools of the payoff stand.

Other objects, features and advantages of the construction will appearor be pointed out as the description proceeds.

In the drawing, forming a part hereof, in which like referencecharacters indicate corresponding parts in all the views;

FIGURE 1 is a fragmentary diagrammatic view of apparatus for supplyingstrands 4from a plurality of rows of spools in accordance with thisinvention, part of the apparatus being broken away and in section at theline 1--1 of FIGURE 2;

FIGURE 2 is an end View of the apparatus shown in FIGURE 1 with part ofthe structure broken away and in section at the line 22 of FIGURE l; and

FIGURE 3 is a wiring diagram for the apparatus shown in the otherfigures.

The apparatus shown in the drawing includes a main frame 10 whichincludes a housing 12 extending for the full length of the apparatus.There are a plurality of spindles 14 -along an upper row and acorresponding lower row of spindles 16. The full size machine mayinclude 30 spindlesl in each row depending upon the number of strands tobe supplied; but the apparatus as shown in FIGURE l has a portion brokenout in order to simplify the drawing and in order to show theconstruction on a larger scale without excessive duplication of parts.

Each of the spindles 14 is supported by an axle 20 (FIGURE 2); and thisaxle 20 is supported by axially spaced bearings 22. The spindle 14 has aflange 24 at its inner end; and a stud 26 extends from the flange forengaging a socket in a spool 28 which is placed on the spindle 1-4. Theaxle 2t), spindle 14, flange 24 are rotated by a gear 30, secured to theaxle 2f) and driven by a motor in a manner which will be described inconnection with one of the other spindles.

Referring to both FIGURES 1 and 2, .a strand 32 which un'winds from thespool 28 passes around a horizontal, payoff guide roller 34 that rotatesfreely on an axle 36. The guide roller 34 is substantially the samewidth as the spool 28 so that the strand from the spool passes aroundthe guide roll 34 regardless of the portion of the spool from which thestrand may be supplied at any given instant.

Beyond the horizontal, payoff guide roller 34, the -strand 32 passesaround a tension control roller 38 on an axle 40 carried by one end ofan arm 42 which swings about a pivot shaft 44 mounted in a bearing 46.There is a pulley wheel 50 secured to the shaft 44 so as to moveangularly .as a unit with the arm 42; and this pulley wheel 50 isconnected to another pulley wheel 52 by a belt 54.

The pulley wheel 52 is on an axle 56 of an autotransformer 60 attachedto the main frame 10 of the apparatus.

The purpose of the autotransformer 60 will be explained in connectionwith FIGURE 3.

For the present it is sufficient to understand, with reference to FIGUREl, that the strand 32 from each of the spools 28 passes around theassociated horizontal, pay- Off guide roller 34, which rotates about afixed axis, and then passes around the tension control roller 38 whichchanges the direction of travel of thestand 52 through substantiallyAfter passing around the tension control roller 38, the strand 32 fromeach spool 28 passes within successive vertical guide means 64a, 64b,64C, and 64d to other vertical guide means including rolls 66. The groupof strands from the different spools is embraced within the bracket 68at the right hand end of the machine shown in FIGURE 1. It will beobserved that the tension control rollers 38 of successive spools 28 arelocated progressively further from the center of the group of strands 68as the different spools 28 are: located closer to the discharge end ofthe pay-olf stand. Thus each strand can be tangent to its tensioncontrol roller 38 while extending parallel to the other strands of thegroup 68.

Where the axles of the tension control rollers 38 extend through thesides of the housing 12,` there is a slot 70 which permits movement ofthe axle and the tension 3 control roller 38 in a direction toaccommodate more or less length of strand 32 in the loop of the strandthat is formed by its passage around the tension control roller 38. Theapparatus is constructed and arranged so that when the tension on thestrand 32 increases, the tension control roller 38 moves towards theright in FIGURE l to offset the change in tension; and conversely whenthe tension on the strand 32 decreases, the tension roller 38 movestowards the left in FIGURE l so as to again subject the strand to theintended tension. The power operating means for moving the tensioncontrol rollers in accordance with changes in the tension strand will beexplained in connection with FIGURE 3.

There are other spools 28 on the lower row of spindles 16. These spools28 are identical with the spools on the upper spindles but they areturned around before being placed on the spindles so that they unwind inthe opposite direction. Thus the strands from the upper spools 28 comedownward to the horizontal guide rollers 34 and tension control rollers38 whereas the strands from the lower spools 28 come upward to similarhorizontal guide rollers 34 and tension control rollers 38. This locatesall of the guide rollers and tension control rollers within a relativelynarrow vertical zone so that all of them are a convenient distance fromthe lower end of the housing 12 which rests on the lloor. All strandsare within convenient reach of an operator when originally setting upthe apparatus or when any strand requires attention.

There are other spindles on the opposite side of the main frame from thespindles 14 and 16. These other spindles include a row of upper spindles74 (FIGURE 2) and another row of lower spindles 76 which are oppositethe spindles 14 and 16 respectively and which are on axles which are inaxial alignment with the axles of the spindles 14 and 16. The partsassociated with the upper spindle 74 shown in FIGURE 2 and whichcorrespond with the same parts associated with the spindle 14 areindicated by the same reference characters with a letter a appended.Parts associated with the spindle 76 are indicated by correspondingreference characters as for the spindle 14 but with a letter b appended.

The spindle 16 is driven by a gear 30 on an axle 20; and power to drivethe gear is supplied by a motor 82 connected to the main frame 10 andhaving a driving pinion 84 which meshes with the gear 30. Thecorresponding spindle 76 on the other side of the machine is driven bythe gear 30b secured to the axle 20b from a motor 86 which is secured tothe main frame 10 and which drives the gear 30b by means of a pinion 88on the armature shaft of the motor 86.

In order to make the apparatus more compact, the motors 82 and 86 areconnected to the frame 10 in a staggered relation; that is, on oppositesides of a frame element 90 of the main frame 10. Thus the motors 82 and86 are located at the same level `but they mesh with the gears 30 and30h at different angular positions around the gears, as shown in theportion of FIGURE l which is broken away and in section. There aresimilar motors 92 and 96 for driving the gears 30 and 30a of thespindles 14 and 74, respectively.

Referring further to the broken away portion of FIG- URE l, there is acrank 102 secured to the pivot shaft 44 and there is a link 104connecting the free end of the crank 102 with one arm of a lever 106which swings about a fixed pivot 108 extending from the main frame ofthe apparatus. The other arm of the lever 106 is connected with a spring110 which has its opposite end anchored at 112 to the frame of theapparatus. This spring 110 gives the shaft 44 a bias in a direction tomaintain a longer loop of the strand around the tension control roller34a.

FIGURE 3 shows a wiring diagram for one of the spindles 16. The axle andother parts associated with this spindle are indicated 'by the samereference characters as the corresponding parts for the spindle 14 shownin FIGURES l and 2, but with a prime appended. The

motor 82, which drives the gear 30' through the pinion 84 on the shaftof the motor 82', is preferably a low inertia induction motor providedwith a main winding and a control winding 122.

A power line consisting of three conductors 125, 126, 127 has theconductor 125 connected to a tap 128 at one end of a single winding 130of the autotransformer 60. Another tap 132 near the opposite end of thecoil 130 is connected with the center of the main winding 120 and alsoconnected to a parallel circuit which joins the tap 132 with one end ofthe control winding 122. The other end of the control winding 122 isconnected with the center connection of an arm 136 which carries asliding contact 138 of the autotransformer 60'.

The sliding contact 138 moves along the length of the winding 130 as thearm 136 is rotated angularly and this controls the current low in thecontrol winding 122 of the motor 82. The opposite ends of the mainwinding 120 are connected `with the conductors 126 and 127 of the powerline.

The spring 110' gives the tension control roller 38 a bias toward theleft in FIGURE 3, Any increase the tension of the strand 32 causes thetension control roller 38 to rock the arm 42 clockwise about the pivotaxle 44 and this rotates the arm 136 of the transformer 60 to shift theslider or brush 138 in a direction to change the current ow in thecontrol winding 122 so as to increase the speed at which the motor 82rotates the spindle 16 and the spool 28. This increase in the rate offeed of the strand 32 decreases the tension in the strand.

Conversely, any decrease in the tension of the strand 32 permits thespring 110 to move the tension control roller 38 toward the left inFIGURE 3; and this movement of the tension control roller permits thespring 110 to rock the arm 42 counterclockwise about the axis of thepivot shaft 44 so that the arm 136 is moved counterclockwise and theslider 138 moves in a direction to change the current in the controlwinding 122 so as to decrease the speed of the motor 82 and thus slowdown the rate at which the strand 32 is unwound from the spool 28. Thisincreases the tension of the strand 32. By constructing the motor 82with low inertia, the control of the tension of this invention isextremely accurate and it can be made with any desired degree ofaccuracy by controlling the mechanical advantage between the tensionindicating mechanism which includes the roller 38', arm 42 and the wheel50 with reference to the tension correcting mechanism which includes theautotransformer 60 with its pulley 52 driven from the pulley wheel 50through the belt 54. By increasing the relative diameter of the pulleywheel 50" with respect to the driven pulley wheel 52', more movement ofthe slider 138 can be obtained for any given variation in tension of thestrand 32 and thus the tension control can be made as accurate asdesired.

The preferred embodiment of the invention has been illustrated anddescribed, but changes and modifications can be made, and some featurescan be used in different combinations without departing from theinvention as defined in the claims.

What is claimed is:

1. Wire strand supply apparatus including, in combination, a framehaving a strand feed zone along which all strands from the apparatus areadvanced substantially horizontally and substantially parallel to oneanother to a discharge end of the apparatus, the upper and lower limitsof said feed zone being at a height from a floor for convenient handlingof the strands during string up and change over by an operator standingon the floor, a plurality of rows of spindles supported by and extendingsubstantially horizontally from the frame including one row at a levelabove said feed zone and another row at a level below said feed zone,the spindles extending outwardly toward the operator, spools on therespective spindles for holding the strands of wire, guide means overwhich strands from the respective spools on the spindles pass to thestrand feed zone, the guide means including a strand payoff guide foreach spool and over which a strand passes as it comes from the spool,other guide means for the strand from each payoff guide including atensioning roll around which the wire strand passes beyond the payoffguide to said strand feed zone, the tensioning roll being in suchposition that the wire strand moves substantially horizontally andgenerally parallel to the strands in said feed zone and to the strandsat all of the other tensioning rolls as the strand approaches and leavessaid tensioning roll, and means for mounting each tensioning roll formovement substantially parallel to the wire strands in said feed zoneand in accordance with the tension of the strand for obtaining uniformtension in the strands in said strand supply apparatus.

2. The strand supply apparatus described in claim 1 characterized by themeans for obtaining uniform tension including a sheave for each spindleand about which the strand from the spool on that spindle changes itsdirection of travel, an arm by which the sheave is carried, a fulcrum onwhich the arm swings to move the sheave selectively in directions toincrease and to decrease-the tension of the strand.

3. The strand supply apparatus described in claim 2 characterized by thesheave being in position substantially to reverse the direction oftravel of the strand whereby the sheave causes a loop in the strand withthe downstream side of the loop extending in substantially the directionof the other strands from the other spindles as the strands advancetoward the delivery end of the strand supply apparatus, and the armbeing movable in a direction to change the length of the strand in theloop without changing substantially its direction or the degree of wrapof the strand about the sheave.

4. The strand supply apparatus described in claim 3 characterized bydilferent motor means for rotating spools on the respective spindles, aspeed control device for each of the motor means, the speed controldevice being controlled by the movement of each arm about its fulcrum.

5. The strand supply apparatus described in claim 1 characterized by theframe having similar rows of spindles, guide means and payoff guides onopposite sides of the frame.

6. Strand supply apparatus including, in combination, a frame having aplurality of rows of spindles, each row extending lengthwise of theframe, and spindles extending horizontally from the frame and one row ofspindles being at a lower level on the frame than the spindles of theother row, guide means over which strands from respective spools of thespindles pass, the guide means including a strand payoff guide for eachspool and over which a strand passes as it comes from the spool, otherguide means for the strand from each payoff guide and around which thestrand passes beyond each payoff guide, and means for mounting saidother guide means for movement in accordance with the tension of thestrand for obtaining uniform tension in the strands in said strandsupply apparatus, said apparatus being characterized by the frame havingsimilar rows of spindles, guide means and payoff guides on oppositesides of the frame, and further characterized by the spindles onopposite sides of the frame being at corresponding locations lengthwiseof the frame in a corresponding level of the frame, motor means forrotating the spindles to control the tension of the strands includingdifferent electric motors for each spindle and motion-transmitting meansthrough which each of the electric motors transmits rotation to itsspindle, the motion-transmitting means for the corresponding spindles onOpposite sides of the frame being offset lengthwise of the frame inopposite directions and the motors occupying positions at substantiallycorresponding positions widthwise of the frame but at locations spacedfrom one another lengthwise of the frame whereby the assembly is morecompact in a transverse direction.

7. The strand supply apparatus described in claim 6 characterized by themotion transmitting means including a gear coaxial with the spindle towhich it supplies power and another gear on the electric motor in meshwith the gear which is coaxial with the spindle, the gears of theelectric motors which drive the corresponding spindles on opposite sidesof the machine being at the same level as one another but meshing withtheir respective gears that are coaxial with the spindles at differentphase angles so as to obtain the spacing of the motors lengthwise of theframes.

8. The strand supply apparatus described in claim 1 characterized bysaid apparatus being a payoff stand for wire strands that work hardenwhen subjected to bending, the guide means about which the wire strandsfrom the respective spools travel being in position to impart the samechanges in direction and resulting total bending as the strands from theother spools, whereby the working of the different wire strands from therespective spools is uniform.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,483,563 2/1924 Wells 242-.131.11,864,558 6/1932 Seeley 242-1311 X 2,530,726 11/ 1950 Rasmussen 57--66.5X 2,626,110 l/ 1953 French 242-25 X 2,844,773 7/1958 Turner et al.3,217,990 11/ 1965 Bullard 242-131 X STANLEY N. GILREATH, PrimaryExaminer.

1. WIRE STRAND SUPPLY APPARATUS INCLUDING, IN COMBINATION, A FRAMEHAVING A STRAND FEED ZONE ALONG WHICH ALL STRANDS FROM THE APPARATUS AREADVANCED SUBSTANTIALLY HORIZONTALLY AND SUBSTANTIALLY PARALLEL TO ONEANOTHER TO A DISCHARGE END OF THE APPARATUS, THE UPPER AND LOWER LIMITSOF SAID FEED ZONE BEING AT A HEIGHT FROM A FLOOR FOR CONVENIENT HANDLINGOF THE STRANDS DURING STRING UP AND CHANGE OVER BY AN OPERATOR STANDINGON THE FLOOR, A PLURALITY OF ROWS OF SPINDLES SUPPORTED BY AND EXTENDINGSUBSTANTIALLY HORIZONTALLY FROM THE FRAME INCLUDING ONE ROW AT A LEVELABOVE SAID FEED ZONE AND ANOTHER ROW AT A LEVEL BELOW SAID FEED ZONE,THE SPINDLES EXTENDING OUTWARDLY TOWARD THE OPERATOR, SPOOLS ON THERESPECTIVE SPINDLES FOR HOLDING THE STRANDS OF WIRE, GUIDE MEANS OVERWHICH STRANDS FROM THE RESPECTIVE SPOOLS ON THE SPINDLES PASS TO THESTRAND FEED ZONE, THE GUIDE MEANS INCLUDING A STRAND PAYOFF GUIDE FOREACH SPOOL AND OVER WHICH A STRAND PASSES AS IT COMES FROM THE SPOOL,OTHER GUIDE MEANS OF THE STRAND FROM EACH PAYOFF GUIDE INCLUDING A